Most Likely To Earn a Top 10 Debut: Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz
After recording the most impressive seasons of their careers in 2021, these players look set to take their place among the game’s elite.
WATCH: Tennis Channel Live discusses Team USA—lead by John Isner and Taylor Fritz—defeating team Canada in the ATP Cup.
WTA: Elena Rybakina
Born in Russia but pledged to Kazakhstan, the 22-year-old possesses some of the cleanest technique on tour, calmly producing a ground game that is as aesthetic as it can be intimidating. Rybakina was on track for a breakout 2020, with 21 wins in the first two months of the season—including a title in Hobart and runner-up finishes in St. Petersburg and Dubai—before the lockdown rattled her rhythm.
She played back into form last year just in time for a headline-grabbing run at Roland Garros, where she outplayed Serena Williams en route to the quarterfinals. Unemotional as ever, Rybakina hardly cracked a smile.
“Everybody laughs about my reactions,” she admitted after the match, “but I mean, for me it’s much easier like this, not to show any reactions.
“I’m a really calm person, but on top of this, all my nerves inside sometimes is good. Sometimes of course it’s not, because to hold everything inside it’s not possible. One day it’s going to explode, and who knows when, so it’s dangerous for other people, especially close ones.”
The closest Rybakina came to exploding was at Wimbledon in a loss to Aryna Sabalenka, but she rebounded to play phenomenal tennis at the Olympics, falling just short of a medal. Earning a career-high ranking of No. 14 in November, Rybakina can easily hit her way through the small gap between herself and the Top 10, which would surely be something to smile about.
ATP: Taylor Fritz
At 24 years old, Fritz is all grown up—a father off the court, and having finally converted his junior pedigree into pro success to finish 2021 as the top-ranked American. But he still believes his best is still to come.
“I know that I will probably be playing my best tennis when I’m somewhere between 26 to 30 years old,” he predicted at the BNP Paribas Open. “So I’m just trying to work as hard as I can, put myself in as many opportunities as I can to have big weeks, breakthroughs.”
One such breakthrough came at Indian Wells: seeded 31st, Fritz scored wins over Matteo Berrettini, Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev, surviving the world No. 3 in a deciding-set tiebreaker to reach the semifinals.
“You can’t practice those situations,” Fritz said in post-match press. “You just have to trust yourself, trust what you’re doing. The best thing you can do off the court is just put the practice in, put the work in so you can trust yourself as much as you possibly can in those situations.”
Not just mentally strong, Fritz showed near-bionic durability to recover from mid-season knee surgery to surge back even better this fall, reaching a second Masters quarterfinal in Paris and the St. Petersburg final.
Flanked by contemporaries like Reilly Opelka, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe, Fritz’s all-court game combines the best of his peers, and he will begin the new season on the brink of a Top 20 debut, with momentum to spare.